This is session number one of an international
student rally held at the University of London
Students' Union on Saturday and Sunday the 11th
and 12th of January 1969.
In this recording George Verwerth speaks on a
revolution in world evangelism.
Several times during the message he moves away
from the microphone to indicate items on a
map.
As he does so, the amplification of the
recording equipment is increased to maintain the level
of speech and this results in a pronounced
increase in the background noise at these points.
We trust however that it will not disturb
your meditation on this vital subject.
Here now is George Verwerth.
There's a verse in the Old Testament that
speaks about how we can experience being mounted
up on wings of eagles and over these
past weeks um as we've had so many
meetings and have been in the midst of
our crusade in Mexico.
This is what we have experienced and we
know many of you have been praying.
How many of you have been praying for
the crusade in Mexico?
Raise your hand.
Quite a few of you.
The Lord probably gave us the biggest campaign
yet for this two-week period holiday period.
We had 240 universities and college students from
all over the United States and Mexico target
in on probably one of the most sinful
or wicked cities in the world, the city
of Juarez.
Some estimate one out of every three women
in that city is a prostitute and it's
just a complete Sodom and Gomorrah situation.
El Paso and Juarez and yet night after
night in the meetings and in the door
-to-door and personal evangelism, the Lord brought
men and women to himself.
We have experienced his mercy there.
There's a great flu epidemic.
The Hong Kong flu I guess it's probably
here as well and this looked like it
was going to wipe us out.
Some of the schools where students were coming
from were completely closed before the campaign and
yet in among all these 240 or so
young people we had hardly a single case
of this flu and the young people came
safely down some of them making a trip
of two and a half thousand miles to
get there.
It's a bit of a run for Chris's
season and the Lord kept his hand upon
each car and each person and during this
time we of course before this time and
since this campaign we've been having many other
meetings and God in answer to prayer has
just opened up all kinds of unique opportunity
to challenge face-to-face many thousands with
this message.
On Sunday we were in Milwaukee Wisconsin and
God brought great numbers to the meeting and
then Monday in Wheaton where we faced a
thousand five hundred students in the Wheaton student
body and then on Tuesday in the Moody
Bible Institute again a thousand or so students
and Wednesday in Grace College in Winona Lake
and in each one of these places it's
so obvious and I don't just say this
so easy to give say this but the
Lord had gone ahead of us just sense
it and I have never sensed in my
ministry such liberty in speaking especially in difficult
situations you get a thousand five hundred students
most of them ultra critical to say the
least and you're given 22 minutes to speak
well if any of you know me 22
minutes to speak you might as well put
me in a bird cage and ask me
to whistle and yet in that one situation
I'm thinking of I actually had finished I
could already believe it but before the 22
minutes was up I didn't have anything more
to say my heart was empty and I
was ready to sit down and let the
Lord work from there and we believe that
the same Lord who's been with us in
Honolulu and Washington Los Angeles and Mexico City
where many hundreds of Mexicans came I've hardly
spoken Spanish for eight years and yet the
Lord just brought all the words back and
though we devoured the grammar we communicated and
it was a great blessing Graham Scott has
been a terrific impact as well in all
of these meetings giving his testimony and challenging
people about the ship and I would say
that interest in this ship in the United
States has tripled in the last three weeks
and there are people that are united with
us to believe that this ship will be
on sea in this year 1969 and God
is pressing us very much in that direction
there's so much I could speak to you
about but you know the thing that has
been so thrilling in these past days in
this trip is the Lord has been continuing
to teach me what I believe is the
true secret whatever way you may come to
it of living for Christ and that's total
daily dependence upon him in my flesh there's
only one place I want to be and
that's back with my wife and family some
of you know I can't stand airplanes I
hate them with a passion and they make
me nervous in the flesh the Lord usually
calms it over but especially when we start
to drop a few feet up there seems
to come right back despite all of my
faith so I have a long way to
go yet but each day without my family
plus so many of these flights I've just
seen that it's just complete dependence on him
and that's the Christian life he won't let
us he doesn't want to let us or
allow us to get to any other place
than that place of complete absolute dependence on
him not on noam not on machinery but
on him praise God now if our boys
can eventually get up here with this map
we'll go into our first subject for this
morning entitled a revolution in world evangelism and
I hope that some of you will um
maybe all of you take some notes about
some of these things please turn in your
bibles to that famous passage Romans chapter 10
Romans chapter 10 that famous passage on evangelism
and on the gospel ministry beginning at verse
11 for the scripture says whosoever believeth on
him shall not be ashamed it's a wonderful
verse isn't it for there is no difference
between the jew and the greek for the
same lord over all is rich unto all
that call upon him for whosoever shall call
upon the name of the lord shall be
saved how then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed and how
shall they believe in him of whom they
have not heard and how shall they hear
without a preacher and how shall they preach
except they be sent as it is written
how beautiful are the feet of them that
preach the gospel of peace and bring glad
tidings of good things they have not all
obeyed the gospel precise that lord who hath
believed i report so then faith cometh by
hearing and hearing by the word of god
so many times i have read uh this
passage of scripture and it has spoken to
my heart again and again when we think
of the task of world evangelism and we
look at this map of the world which
represents three thousand million people we can easily
become overwhelmed very easily because we realize that
it's an impossible task in some places evangelism
continues to go backward at an enormous rate
not because there are no missionaries not because
nothing's being done but because of the gigantic
population explosion that is taking place around the
world in india for example this little country
over here it looks new compared to africa
and south america there are 13 million more
people every year this means an area or
a population equivalent to that of london more
actually is added to india every year recently
i was in pakistan in east i was
in east and west but i'm especially thinking
of east pakistan east pakistan that little area
under my one finger much smaller than the
british isle equivalent to perhaps the land of
scotland has 60 million people i don't know
if you're aware of the fact that right
now many are starving to death in east
pakistan i was meeting with a british engineer
he was traveling to east pakistan uh working
for a marine company that charters small ships
to go out to these huge american wheat
ships to bring the wheat into chittagong which
is important it's too small for these huge
super freighters and he was telling me how
many they estimate are going to perish from
famine in east pakistan but this exploding population
makes it almost impossible to uh catch up
with the problems that face these lands of
course when we think of south america we
also think of exploding populations where we were
in mexico recently there are now 40 million
people some ways mexico in terms of its
poverty and suffering seems the same it was
same way it was when i was first
there 10 years ago during the cold time
in northern mexico where we were people were
dying in the night because of the cold
and we could take an enormous amount of
time this morning um talking about country after
country and discussing the impossible situation that has
come to pass because of population explosion prince
philip some time ago said that half the
world was going to bed on a diet
that would reduce the average westerner to skin
and bone perhaps it isn't as true in
1969 as it has been previously but there's
still a lot of truth to that statement
and i believe that this world situation that
we face demands some intensive thinking i believe
that the church must wake up to the
fact that we are living in a time
of crisis in tozer's book born after midnight
i copied uh this quotation in times of
extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will not suffice the
world lives in such a time of crisis
christians alone are in a position to rescue
the perishing we dare not settle down to
try to live as if things were normal
nothing is normal nothing is normal while sin
and lust and death roam the world pouncing
upon one another till the whole population has
been destroyed to me it has always been
difficult to understand those evangelical christians who insist
upon living in the crisis as if no
crisis existed they say they serve the lord
but they divide their days so as to
leave plenty of time to play and loaf
and enjoy the pleasures of the world as
well they are at ease while the world
burns and they can furnish many convincing reasons
for their conduct even quoting scriptures if you
press them just a bit how true it
is that we live in the midst of
this enormous crisis many of us as if
no crisis existed and the first stage of
revolution in evangelism must always be revolution in
our own personal lives without any doubt all
over the united states and mexico in the
past few weeks i have been reading a
very devastating quotation two devastating quotations one of
them is from c.s lewis and the
other is from jb phillips jb phillips in
his book ring of truth said this and
i believe it represents the core of the
problem here is the first and most deadly
casualty in our modern pattern of thought you
might want to write that down that we
do not seriously believe that god is willing
to penetrate the inner springs of human character
and begin a solitary revolution there this disbelief
is our incalculable loss so perhaps hear that
quotation again before this weekend is through but
this is the core of the problem and
this is where we must begin this morning
in this first hour of our weekend together
with the conviction that god can bring to
pass a revolution in our own lives otherwise
talking about evangelism talking about india talking about
the middle east is all a gigantic waste
of time it has to start on a
personal level tozer said the popular notion that
the first obligation of the church is to
spread the gospel to the uttermost parts of
the earth is false her first obligation is
to be spiritually worthy to spread it to
spread an effete degenerate brand of christianity to
pagan lands is not to fulfill the great
commission revolution and evangelism firstly involves a revolution
in our own lives a revolution in our
living a revolution in our thinking a revolution
in the way we approach such things as
the race problem as some of you perhaps
know there'll be a huge demonstration today in
london though we tend to move out in
the streets with literature i'm afraid there'll be
something 20 times as large as us as
there's going to be a race demonstration black
power demonstration and some other combination of demonstrators
i only heard about it on the plane
in the center of london today i'm sure
it's not a coincidence that we have gathered
at this time and may god give us
that wisdom and strength as we go out
uh even this afternoon wherever we go we
see these demonstrations i i can hardly believe
when i'm back in the states that i'm
in the same country i left 10 years
ago it is incredible the riots that are
spreading now into high schools the dope addiction
that's spreading into high schools and the immorality
that is just accepted as the common day
the universities in california the boys men and
women are living together and no one is
saying anything about it it's just as much
a part of school life as drinking and
people are just shocked in many of our
cities now it's absolutely impossible to walk through
the streets cook county reported last week this
is the county around chicago that last year
more were killed with weapons than with automobiles
some 20 or 40 higher in the 600
bracket were killed with lethal weapons by accidents
and by shootings last year and we see
that uh it is an hour in which
we realize revolution is absolutely necessary billy graham
said we are dangerously near to saying to
the prodigal son it's not necessary to return
to your father in home we can make
you comfortable in the pig pen we are
so totally concerned with material comforts rather than
the proclamation of the good news which he
so desperately needs and i'm convinced that this
revolution in our personal lives must touch every
area of our living it's not just going
to be some uh pseudo-religious uh glow
coat it's going to be something that penetrates
the very inner springs of our heart as
jb phillips said something that goes to the
very depths of our personality and brings to
pass a vital transformation it was eric fife
an englishman who is one of the leaders
of inner varsity in america who said today
we have perhaps a higher standard of academic
preparation for the mission field than ever before
but it is unfortunately true that there are
very few candidates get that there are very
few candidates whose prayer and conversation are such
as have a heartwarming quality revolution and missions
absolutely essential where does it begin it begins
in our personal lives we'll be talking about
this revolution in our personal lives in quite
a few of our meetings this weekend but
with this as a foundation and the background
of our thinking let us turn our eyes
to this little map of the world let
us try to picture some of the situations
that we're facing over here in these various
areas of the world now some of you
know i'm living at present in bangkok when
i went to bangkok thailand i um thought
well this is a country you know i
certainly don't want to work in missionaries have
been here for years and i was there
only as a faith for india and because
i had to go to singapore to take
part in the asian congress on evangelism there
are many missionaries in thailand just before i
left thailand i was sitting down at the
uh at lunch with the director of weck
in thailand and we were discussing evangelism we
were discussing the need to reach the masses
he told me how very few people were
working in evangelism in the city of bangkok
where there are several million people missionaries are
mainly in the tribes in the north and
in other parts of the nation the great
urban area the massive city of bangkok is
relatively unreached there's been hardly any massive evangelistic
effort in fact he told me that he
didn't know anyone hardly in the entire nation
of thailand that was engaged in door-to
-door evangelism or any kind of cold portage
work and the flow of literature out across
that nation is unbelievably low yet the nation
is so wide open to the preaching of
the gospel we americans don't even need visas
and there are tens of thousands of americans
in thailand which as some of you know
is the main american ally in asia where
all the bomber bases are and no om
is not planning any official work in thailand
i would appreciate your prayers as i've been
asked to address a large number of all
the christian leaders in thailand on the 5th
of february when i return but again i've
received what i have received in nation after
nation the unbelievable shock that though there are
missionaries there dedicated missionaries the job is far
from complete and i'm just overwhelmed when i
get in the midst of such situations as
i mentioned i was in pakistan for some
time what a thrill it wants to meet
with phil farshall in east pakistan phil is
a young man who received his vision for
the muslim world through attending our prayer meetings
at moody back eight years ago god touched
his heart concerning muslims and he heard me
once give a challenge concerning east pakistan a
country that has been on my heart for
about 10 years he went to mexico with
om and received his training down in a
very hot city with a similar climate as
east pakistan on the same latitude and he's
over there now after a number of years
in which they felt no mass evangelism could
be done they're literally begging us to come
in with an om team in fact it
somehow persuaded the southern baptist church to finance
and pay the whole thing we're still not
going but anyway he's there and is now
the field director of his mission i mentioned
this because the strategy of om in this
revolution for evangelism is not to become a
madman organization with all the answers that's going
to do the job that that isn't the
goal nor will it ever take place our
burden is that somehow young people in training
with us for a year or a summer
though it's hard to do it in the
summer may experience this revolution may experience new
life and reality in christ and that eventually
may end up working with all the various
evangelical societies and missions throughout the world and
i'm convinced that this is a great or
a very important part of the strategy the
lord has given us here's a young man
trained with us here's a young man who
received his vision with us and it was
certainly a young man with a heart after
god who was already after five years on
the field appointed as the field director for
his very well-known mission in east pakistan
young people trained with om are now in
more than 30 nations working with 20 or
more various mission societies and evangelistic groups and
i believe this is one of the ways
that we can see revolution in missions and
in evangelism and some of you know i
have been patient myself part of the time
and may move there since i first meet
in the land of nepal you've always heard
talk about nepal being closed and you can't
evangelize there nepal has 10 million people among
those 10 million there are probably less than
150 who know jesus christ there the illiteracy
is approximately not literacy illiteracy 95 95 there
are almost no roads in the entire nation
young men who are going to reach the
nepali for christ is going to have to
know something about exercises i doubt if the
om 10 minute sprint at 6 30 in
the morning is going to be quite enough
to put men in shape for climbing the
himalayas to reach these hundreds of thousands and
millions of nepalese for jesus christ pray as
we're opening lord willing a bookshop an educational
bookshop as a sort of a front for
evangelistic work in nepal as some of you
know i'm not able to get into india
at present but being able to get into
nepal actually is putting me in a better
position for our work in north india than
when i was in bombay it's hard to
believe but from patna the center of br
to katmandu it's about three pound 10 by
air an incredibly street strategic place and we
would appreciate your prayers as unbelievable open doors
have come in that town or in that
city and in that nation west pakistan is
another unbelievable situation with a small number of
missionaries per person afghanistan has 14 million people
actually no one really knows the population they
only figure it out by the tea consumption
i don't know they learned that from the
british or what but uh they know how
many how much tea is imported all tea
has to be imported and they know how
much the average afghan drinks and so they
divide and what else and they try to
come up with a population statistic and it's
either 14 million or they're drinking more tea
than they should just recently in mexico i
was with gordon magny whose sites for eight
years have been on afghanistan you know i
believe this is what's needed in this revolution
and evangelism men who not only point a
finger to a particular difficult country maybe a
communist land or a muslim land but then
who are ready to go through the training
the discipline the breaking the teaching that's necessary
to prepare a man for that kind of
work and so there's been seven years of
breaking teaching more than that of course preparing
gordon and his wife who lord willing will
launch out to work completely with the other
christian workers who are already there this march
afghanistan is a land of unbelievable need i
was with christy wilson man considered the leader
of christian work there over in the asian
congress and evangelism became the little night of
prayer that we arranged in the midst of
the congress and i asked him to share
something about afghanistan and very confidentially in terms
of public news not in terms of sharing
in a meeting like this he mentioned that
there were perhaps less than five baptized believers
among the afghans secret believers he said there
may be another five how in the world
can we possibly even begin to think that
the task of world evangelism is over when
we think of situations like this and yet
in this so-called closed country men like
gordon magny have received a scholarship to study
at the university of kabul and i believe
that god is in afghanistan in these days
to come it's going to take however a
revolution in our thinking a revolution in evangelism